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India, NZ battle-ready for series finale

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(AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)

Thiruvananthapuram: With series levelled at 1-1, India and New Zealand will aim to outplay each other in the third and final Twenty20 International match to seal the series at the Greenfield International Stadium here on Tuesday.

But the spectators might not witness full 20-overs each side because the series decider here is under rain threat.

The meteorological office here has also predicted that the weather will be generally cloudy with a few spells of rain or thundershowers starting from Sunday till Wednesday.

Apart from this, it will be a thrilling contest between the two team which are evenly matches on the paper as well as on the field.

To clinch the series, India have to display a better show in both batting and bowling department while New Zealand would like to continue with the same momentum.

India, comprehensive beat the visitors in the first match at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi. In the second match, New Zealand bounced back in style and defeated India by 40 runs.

Opting to bat first on winning the toss, the visitors rode on an unbeaten quickfire century by opener Colin Munro to post 196/2 in their allotted 20 overs. Munro batted through the innings, smashing 109 runs off 58 deliveries.

In reply, the hosts could only manage to post 156/7.

So, in order to beat the visitors, Indian batsmen have to click this time. The middle-order batsmen like Shreyas Iyer, Manendra Singh Dhoni, Hardik Pandya have to click in unison.

The bowling department was also seemed struggling on the flat pitch. Apart from pacer Jasprit Bumrah, no other bowlers troubled the batsmen in the previous match.

Spinners also failed to step up to the occasion and were smashed all around the park. But, in the decider, the gloomy conditions and pitch might favour India.

India skipper Virat Kohli also have to make the plan for the Duckworth Lewis method which might come in the play.

New Zealand, on the other hand, displayed a brilliant performance. There only problem is the consistency.

In the first match New Zealand were outplayed in every department of the game and in the second match they grouped together and showed their class. So, in order to seal the deal this time they have to repeat the same performance.

The fans might see a interesting battle between both the teams if India and New Zealand played as per the expectations.

Squads

India: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Lokesh Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (WK), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.

New Zealand : Kane Williamson (c), Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Trent Boult, Tom Bruce, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Adam Milne, Colin Munro, Glenn Phillips (wk).

(IANS)

Grandson of HD Deve Gowda to Contest in Next Assembly Elections in Karnataka

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Hassan: Grandson of JDS national president HD Deve Gowda, Prajwal Revanna has reportedly obtained green signal from his grandfather to contest in the next assembly elections in Karnataka.

Speaking to media persons here in Haradarahalli in Hassan, Bhavani Revanna, mother of Prajwal said her son would contest in the next assembly elections and he has obtained permission for this from party supremo HD Deve Gowda.

Deve Gowda will decide the constituency in which Prajwal should contest in the state assembly elections scheduled for early 2018. He is very likely to contest either from Belur constituency or Rajarajeshwari Nagar in Bengaluru.

(Agencies)

Congress dares Modi to put ‘Paradise Papers’ suspects in dock

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New Delhi: The Congress on Monday dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to initiate action against the suspected Indian tax evaders who feature in the “Paradise Papers” leak, including one of his ministers, and put the entire facts before the Supreme Court bench overseeing black money investigations.

The Congress also demanded the resignation of Minister Jayant Sinha.

“Will the Prime Minister show the courage of conviction to hand over this entire information to the bench of Supreme Court that is looking at action against black money holders? Will the ‘Compromised Bureau of Investigation’ (CBI) and ED (Enforcement Directorate) take action?” Congress Spokesman Randeep Surjewala said.

The “Paradise Papers” are a set of 13.4 million leaked financial documents from law firm Appleby on investments of major multi-national corporations (MNCs) and that of well known individuals in India and abroad in tax havens.

The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung obtained the documents and subsequently shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

The Indian Express newspaper carried out the investigation in the case of 714 Indian links, which include Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha and BJP Rajya Sabha MP R.K. Sinha.

The leaked papers allegedly reveal that Jayant Sinha was a director in a US company D. Light Design that has a subsidiary of the same name in Cayman Islands. This subsidiary raised a loan of US$3 million. A loan agreement dated December 31, 2012 was signed with Jayant Sinha as a signatory and a director.

Surjewala said that Jayant Sinha concealed this information of being a director of D. Light Design in his declaration to the Election Commission as also to the Lok Sabha Secretariat and the Prime Minister’s Office.

He said that Jayant Sinha continued as a director of D. Light Design even after being elected as an MP in May 2014 and “continued to receive money and shares” of D. Light Design during this period.

“Jayant Sinha also refuses to disclose the various financial documents that he has signed for or on behalf of Omidyar Network. He is or has been a director of various other companies. Do these companies have any connection to any offshore entities like the Omidyar Network?,” the Congress leader said.

While Jayant Sinha has explained his position through a series of tweets, R.K. Sinha, when confronted by media, wrote on a piece of paper that he is on a “maun vrat” (vow of silence) for seven days for religious reasons.

Surjewala said that R.K. Sinha and his wife Rita Kishore Sinha are owners of an offshore company called ‘SIS Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd’ (SAPHL) in Malta, a tax haven.

He further said that another company called ‘SIS International Holding Ltd’ (SIHL) is incorporated in the offshore tax haven of British Virgin Islands and owns 39,99,999 shares of SAPHL.

“R.K. Sinha neither disclosed this in his election affidavit nor to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat…Is the non-disclosure not an electoral offence? Did the BJP and the Modi government not know about all these offshore tax haven based transactions?” Surjewala demanded to know.

He said that Prime Minister Modi’s “so-called” fight against black money and corruption remains a “complete flop” as it failed to take action in the Panama Papers leak where around 500 names emerged, including those of persons linked to the BJP.

(IANS)

Paradise Papers: Amitabh Bachchan, Jayant Sinha among 714 Indians linked to tax havens

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New Delhi: Minister of State Jayant Sinha, BJP MP Ravindra Kishore, Congress leader Sachin Pilot, former minister P. Chidambaram’s son Karti and Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachhan figure among 714 Indians named in a financial data expose on how the world’s rich and powerful have stashed their wealth abroad to evade legitimate taxes, according to a worldwide investigation whose first lot of revelations was published on Monday.

India ranks 19th among 180 countries, exposed in the cache of 13.4 million documents dubbed as “Paradise Papers”, in terms of the number of individuals and companies who have skirted taxes and invested in offshore companies in tax havens.

It comes a year after Panama Papers leak and two days before the government observes “Anti-Black Money Day” to mark the first anniversary of demonetisation — a move that sought to hit at illicit wealth.

The data relates to two firms – Bermuda’s Appleby and Singapore’s Asiaciti and 19 tax havens across the world that help the global rich to move their money abroad, according to the Indian Express which was part of the world-wide probe carried out by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

“Interestingly, it is an Indian company, Sun Group, founded by Nand Lal Khemka, that figures as Appleby’s second-largest client internationally, with as many as 118 different offshore entities,” the newspaper said.

The leaked data indicates that among Appleby’s Indian clients were several prominent corporates and companies which subsequently came under the scrutiny of investigating agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate.

These include firms in the Sun-TV-Aircel-Maxis case; Essar-Loop 2G case; SNS-Lavalin in which Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was named and then cleared; the Rajasthan ambulance scam which has recently been routed to the CBI and which names a company called Ziquista Healthcare (Sachin Pilot and Karti Chidambaram were earlier honorary/independent directors of the firms respectively); and fresh financial links in a CBI case against YSR Congress chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha’s name figures in the record because of his past association with Omidyar Network.

BJP Rajya Sabha member Ravindra Kishore Sinha, a former journalist who founded the private security service firm SIS or Security and Intelligence Services, is heading a group that has two offshore entities in Malta offshore.

Besides corporates, the data revealed details of individuals as well: Amitabh Bachchan’s shareholding in a Bermuda company acquired before the 2004 Liberalised Remittance Scheme kicked in; corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and film star Sanjay Dutt’s wife who figures under her former name Dilnashin.

Jayant Sinha on Monday denied any wrongdoing and said all transactions related to him mentioned in the investigation were “fully disclosed” to relevant authorities and were done in his “official capacity, not personal”.

“These were bonafide and legal transactions undertaken on behalf of highly reputed world-leading organisations in my fiduciary role as Partner at Omidyar Network and its designated representative on the D.Light Board,” he tweeted.

The daily said Jayant Sinha did not mention this in his declaration to the Election Commission when he contested the Lok Sabha polls in 2014, nor to the Lok Sabha Secretariat or the Prime Minister’s Office as a Minister of State in 2016.

But the Minister said all these transactions have been fully disclosed to “relevant authorities through all necessary filings as required”.

“After leaving Omidyar Network, I was asked to continue on the D.Light Board as an Independent Director. On joining the Union Council of Ministers, I immediately resigned from the D.Light Board and severed my involvement with the company.”

But the Congress was not impressed with his defence and demanded Jayant Sinha’s resignation and a “high-level probe” into the scam.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s so-called fight against black money and corruption remains a complete flop.

“Jayant Sinha refuses to disclose the various financial documents that he has signed for or on behalf of Omidyar Network. He is or has been a director of various other companies. Do these companies have any connection to any offshore entities like the Omidyar Network? Does it not compromise the position of Jayant Sinha as the MoS?” the Congress leader said.

Asked about Sachin Pilot and son of former minister Vayalar Ravi figuring up in the Paradise Papers related to the Rajasthan ambulance scam, Surjewala said: “The CBI and ED probe has already been initiated against Sachin Pilot. Will the government order probe against all those in the list?”

He asked the Prime Minister and the government if he knew about R.K. Sinha and his wife Rita Kishore Sinha’s “international tax havens based entities”.

The BJP Rajya Sabha MP on the otherhand has indicated that he cannot comment because he was on “maun vrat” (silence of vow) for a week.

Asked for his reaction, the MP gestured that he had shut his mouth up and wrote on a piece of paper that he had taken a pledge not to speak for a week for ‘Bhagwat Yagna’.

(IANS)

China objects to Nirmala Sitharaman’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh

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New Delhi: China on Monday objected to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s first visit to Arunachal Pradesh, saying her tour of the “disputed area” is not conducive to the peace and tranquillity in the region.

On Sunday, Sitharaman visited forward army posts in remote Anjaw district of Arunachal Pradesh bordering China to take stock of the defence preparedness.

“As to Indian Defence Minister visit to Arunachal Pradesh, you must be very clear about China’s position,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing.

“There is a dispute on the eastern section of the China-India boundary. So this visit by the Indian side to the disputed area is not conducive to the peace and tranquillity of the relevant region,” she said in a response to a question.

The Indian side should work with the Chinese side to make contribution to properly revolving the issue through dialogue and create enabling environment and conditions, she said.

“Hope India will work with China for the shared goal, seek a solution acceptable to both sides and accommodate our concerns in a balanced way,” she said.

China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet and routinely objects to top Indian officials’ visit to the area.

The Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China stretches to 3,488 km. Both sides have held 19 rounds of talks by the Special Representatives to resolve the dispute.

Sitharaman had visited Nathu La area on the India-China border in Sikkim last month and greeted the People’s Liberation Army soldiers across the border.

(PTI)

Russia retaliates after Canada imposes sanctions

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A woman holds a placard with a portrait of Sergei Magnitsky during a 2012 rally [Tatyana Makeyeva/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Canada’s move to impose sanctions on 30 Russian officials was “senseless and reprehensible” and has led to retaliatory measures, Russian officials said.

Canada announced the sanctions on Friday against Russian officials it accused of complicity in the death of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009 while he was in prison after alleging state tax fraud.

Kirill Kalinin, a spokesman for the Russian diplomatic mission in Ottawa, told the official TASS news agency late on Friday retaliatory actions against Canadians had already been set in motion.

“Canada’s decision on extending anti-Russian sanctions under a false pretext of a hypocritical protection of human rights is absolutely senseless and reprehensible,” said Kalinin.

Ottawa’s move “is isolating itself from one of the key global powers” and “pushes Canada’s foreign policy back to the narrow black-and-white worldview, incompatible with modern geopolitics”, he added.

“Dozens of Canadians” have now been barred from entering Russia in response, Kalinin said, without specifying who would be affected.

Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed “the list is long, with dozens of names on it”.

The foreign ministry said in a statement those targeted are “Russophobic Canadian citizens who have consistently worked to destroy bilateral relations.”

In 2008, the whistleblower Magnitsky accused Russian interior ministry officials of organising a $235m tax scam, but he was then charged with the crimes he claimed to have uncovered. Human rights groups allege he was beaten in prison before he died under unclear circumstances.

His detention and death ignited serious diplomatic tensions between Russia and some western countries, including the United States.

Canada last month passed a Sergei Magnitsky Law, which targets Russian officials for human rights violations. Ottawa followed the Magnitsky Act passed by the US that led to sanctions on more than 40 Russian officials.

NTPC blast: 15 men with burn injuries shifted to AIIMS

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New Delhi: Fifteen men, who have suffered serious burn injuries in the NTPC plant explosion in Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli, have been shifted to AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospital here.

While six of them were admitted to AIIMS trauma centre, nine were taken to Safdarjung Hospital.

Majority of the six admitted to AIIMS have suffered extreme facial burns.

“They have been admitted in the burn department of the AIIMS trauma centre. One of them has 60 per cent burns, while others have burn injuries ranging between 25 and 50 per cent,” a senior doctor at the premier All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) said.

The injured were brought to AllMS around 8.30 pm, after being flown to Delhi in an air bus. A green corridor was created from the IGI Airport to the AIIMS trauma centre considering the seriousness of the patients.

Among the nine patients at Safdarjung Hospital, two of the injured persons were brought to the central government-run facility around 8 pm yesterday, while seven others were admitted in the burns ICU of the hospital early this morning.

“Five of the patients are very critical. While three of them have suffered around 80 per cent burns, two have got 60 -70 per cent burn injuries,” Dr Rajendra Sharma, the medical superintendent of the Safdarjung Hospital, told PTI.

The other four patients have suffered burns ranging between 25 and 45 per cent, Sharma said.

“We have the arrangements in place, in case more patients are to be brought, we can accommodate them,” Sharma said.

Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel visited the hospital last night to oversee and ensure that the blast burn patients get the best treatment and care.

The death toll in the massive explosion at the state-run power giant NTPC’s Unchahar plant climbed to 32.

Eighty-five injured people are being treated at hospitals in Rae Bareli, Lucknow and Delhi.

The NTPC has initiated a probe to ascertain the reasons behind the blast.

In a statement issued yesterday, the NTPC had said that at unit number 6 of its Unchahar plant, there was a sudden abnormal sound at 20-metre elevation on Wednesday afternoon.

The 1,550-MW plant supplies electricity to nine states, according to officials, and employs around 870 people.

(Agencies)

Rains continue to lash TN, hit normal life

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Chennai: Rains continued to lash this metropolis and neighbouring districts of Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur besides other regions of Tamil Nadu, even as the MeT department forecast more rainfall due to a low pressure area persisting in the Bay of Bengal.

Commuters had a harrowing time due to delayed services of buses and trains and severe traffic snarls. Mild rainfall was recorded in some areas in the state, moderate in others and heavy in some pockets.

Schools and colleges, closed since October 31, were shut Saturday as well and several university exams were postponed. The state-level National Talent Search Exam scheduled for today was deferred to November 18.

Civic authorities, including corporation officials, district collectors (Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur) coordinated relief work.

Power supply was suspended in inundated areas such as parts of MKB Nagar in North Chennai, pockets of Madipakkam in South Chennai and Karapakkam off Porur in Western Chennai to ensure safety.

Netizens posted updates about traffic diversions and inundated areas on social media and volunteers distributed food packets and water in affected areas of Nanmangalam and Pallikaranai here.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami had Friday visited many waterlogged parts of the city and its suburbs, insisting that his government was working on a “war-footing”. He was accompanied by his deputy O Panneerslevam and senior officials.

Meanwhile, a Met bulletin said the low pressure area over southwest Bay of Bengal, adjoining Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu coast and the associated cyclonic circulation extending upto 3.1 km above mean sea level continued to persist.

With the northeast monsoon active in the state and neighbouring Puducherry, Chennai city (Nungambakkam) recorded 65.8 mm of rainfall while suburban Meenambakkam registered 62 mm rains in 24 hours ending 8.30 am today.

The coastal district of Nagapattinam in the Cauvery delta zone recorded 2 cm rain and Karaikal in Puducherry one cm rain from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm Friday. Comprehensive updates on rainfall for other regions till this morning are awaited.

The Met department said rain or thundershowers were likely to occur at many places over coastal Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and at a few places over interior Tamil Nadu.

Heavy rain at isolated places was very likely over Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, it said.

A release from the railways said showers caused track “circuit based signalling to fail” due to water logging in Chennai Division, “affecting punctuality” between Kodambakkam- St Thomas Mount stations in the southern sector from 9 pm yesterday and it was restored at 9.50 pm.

This was also the case at the northern Tondiarpet and Korukkupet route at 9.35 pm and services were restored at 5.45 am today, the release said.

“Wherever automatic signalling got affected, trains got slightly delayed since they had to be dealt with manual signals instead of automatic signals,” it said.

There were also some power tripping issues in railway routes, including the northern suburban Chennai Beach-Central- Tiruvallur. Power was immediately restored by extending supply from adjacent sub stations within a few minutes, they said.

Saturday morning, a rail fracture was detected between St Thomas Mount and Pallavaram stations and it was attended and set right soon after, they said.

“Except for some minor delays, train services including Chennai Suburban Services are being maintained normally and monitored continuously by railway officials,” they said.

(PTI)

India stun Japan 4-2, enter women’s Asia Cup final

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Kakamigahara: The Indian women’s hockey team continued its splendid run and came up with an over-all performance to stun defending champions Japan 4-2 in the semi-final of the Asia Cup hockey tournament, here Friday.

Goals from Gurjit Kaur (7th, 9th minutes), Navjot Kaur (9th) and Lalremsiami (38th) ensured India’s entry into Sunday’s final where they will face China.

India had earlier defeated an unpredictable China 4-1 in the league stage of the tournament.

Against Japan, the Indians got off to a rollicking start by earning back-to-back penalty corners to put pressure on the host nation.

Dragflicker Gurjit Kaur gave India a 1-0 lead in the seventh minute when she improvised the injection to send the ball past Japanese goalkeeper Akio Tanaka.

Two minutes later, Navjot Kaur doubled India’s lead when she struck a field goal from a perfect assist by forward Vandana Katariya.

Almost immediately, India won a penalty corner and Gurjit was yet again on target as she gave India a commanding 3-0 in no time.

India won another penalty corner in the first quarter but this time Tanaka made a fine save.

While the first 15 minutes belonged to India, the defending champions made a strong comeback in the second quarter.

Japan unleashed a well coordinated attack on the Indian defence and found space for Shiho Tsujii to score past Indian custodian Savita in the 17th minute.

The next few minutes saw India’s defence put to test by the Japanese.

Yui Ishibashi gave India jitters when she scored another field goal to close the gap to 2-3 in the 28th minute.

From there on, the Indians were needed to play cautiously and not make impulsive decisions. This was exactly what they did after the 10-minute break at halftime.

While Savita made a brilliant save to deny Japan from a penalty corner at the start of the third quarter, Lalremsiami scored a sensational field goal in the 38th minute to extend India’s lead to 4-2.

The final 15 minutes of the match continued to remain tense as Japan won two penalty corners but Savita stood like a rock in front of the goal to deny the hosts.

(PTI)

Sena leader compiles booklet on BJP’s ‘scams’, party says its not official

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Mumbai: A Shiv Sena leader compiled a booklet titled “Ghotalebaaz BJP” listing “scams” of BJP ministers and distributed it among the party leaders yesterday.

The development could further strain the already frosty relations being shared by the two uncomfortable allies even though a Sena leader today clarified that the booklet was not compiled officially by the Uddhav Thackeray-led party. A Sena leader today said the booklet was distributed after the meeting got over last evening and Thackeray had already left the place by then.

The 56-page booklet lists 20 “national scams” of the “transparent BJP” from the time it came to power at the Centre and also the “scams” that were allegedly “committed by the party leaders, besides the quantum of scams during the BJP’s tenure from 1999 to 2004”.

On the proceedings of the meeting, Sena MLC Neelam Gorhe said Thackeray asked the cadres to further increase the organisational strength upto the booth level and ensure that the loan waiver scheme, announced under the name of Chhatrapati Shivaji maharaj, is implemented without any hiccups.

Interestingly, Sena had recently hit out at the BJP-led state government over “hasty” implementation of the Rs 34022 crore loan waiver scheme for farmers. The BJP-led government in Maharashtra, of which Sena is also a part, recently completed three years in office. Though Sena seems attempting a damage control by stating that the booklet was not an official compilation, the opposition NCP latched onto it to attack the BJP.

“The BJP, which always talks about transparency and high morals, has been bared by its own ally. If the BJP still shares power with the Sena after it has laid bare all the facts about corruption of its ministers. There will be none other than the BJP which will be perceived as being so helpless for power,” Malik told reporters. The Sena has stepped up its attack against its senior ally after the BJP inducted Congress renegade and ex-Shivsainik Narayan Rane’s outfit in the NDA fold.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had earlier confirmed the reports that Rane, who recently left the Congress to float Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha, would be inducted into the government in the next Cabinet expansion, expected to take place before the Winter session of Maharashtra Legislature in December. Fadnavis had said that people may not like Sena playing a “double role” in politics, a dig aimed at the frequent attacks by the Sena on the BJP while continuing to be in government.

(PTI)

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